29% of Australians who pirate also pay for music on iTunes

Consumer rights watchdog CHOICE lambasted the Federal Government in July for considering a ­“three-strikes policy” as a potential tactic in helping to solve the ongoing copyright infringement problem in Australia; now, it’s released survey results which show Australians are less felonious that most think.

The survey, conducted with 1046 participants from the general population between October 31 and November 7, shows 55% of Australians try to use legal sources first, with 50% of consumers saying that that their main reason for pirating was price and 41% saying it was because they wanted specific content sooner than it is available in Australia.

67% of Australians never download or stream pirated movies or TV shows; 33% of people have pirated content, and 23% of people pirate content at least monthly. Critically though, people who pirate at least monthly are more likely to pay for content through an iTunes or Apple TV subscription.

12% of those surveyed who said they never pirate also pay for music through iTunes however of those that did admit to pirating content, 29% also said they pay for music on iTunes.

CHOICE Director of Campaigns and Communications Matt Levey said: "Some people have suggested we're a nation of pirates, but CHOICE has found we're a nation of couch potatoes who seek out content, online and off. This data shows that most Australians who pirate are even more willing to spend money on content than those who don't pirate.

"A substantial proportion of people are pirating because of the high cost of content in Australia, and the time differences between releases here and overseas."

CHOICE has long beenadvocating recommendations that facilitate cheaper content for Australians. In its 59-pagesubmissionto the Competition Policy Review Draft Report, it calls out “knee-jerk changes to GST on imports”, the outdated intellectual property laws that “prop up entertainment monopolies” and the use of ‘geo-blocking’ in entertainment that “sustains international price discrimination.”

"Many existing business models are coming under pressure, while some are leveraging the advantage of incumbency, using unprecedentedaccess to consumer data to entrench their market power," CHOICE said in its submission."Others are resisting technologicalchange, putting up barriers to innovation and the changing preferences of consumers.